This International Symposium on Recent Advances in Otitis Media and post-symposium Research Conference is the seventh meeting held every four years. A unique aspect of the Symposium is the integration of basic science and clinical research focusing on otitis media (OM). The Research Conference is designed to summarize and critically analyze important research findings by world leaders in the field immediately after the Symposium. Otitis Media is second only to the common cold as the most common children's disease in the United States. Although rarely life threatening, the potential effects on a child's development and health costs makes OM a major public health problem. The objectives of the five-day Symposium and Research Conference are: 1) to gather and review current information on basic and clinical research in OM (including otitis media with effusion or secretory otitis media) for the four years since the last Symposium and Research Conference on Otitis Media; 2) to determine the scientific rationale for the pathogenic mechanisms, prevention, diagnosis, and management of otitis media; 3) to identify new research opportunities and to delineate future research directions and priorities; and 4) to disseminate this information through publications. The proceedings of the Symposium have been published as a book by a publishing house, and about 10,000 free copies have been distributed in the past to medical school libraries, academic department of otolaryngology and pediatrics, private practitioners (otolaryngology, pediatrics, family medicine), and researchers in this and related fields. The Research Conference reports have been published as a supplement to a professional journal for wider dissemination of the information. Requested support is limited to a one-day Research Conference and publication and dissemination of the Conference Report.